Opinions

The evolution of horizontal drilling has caused a boom in oil and gas production throughout the United States. Indeed, our success in developing new resources has been so remarkable that the International Energy Association reported late last year that by around 2030, "North America becomes a net...

Recent news of the Klamath Tribe’s victory in a water rights battle after 38 years of court proceedings came as no surprise to the Hoopa Valley Tribe. Hoopa knows that tribal water rights and tribal trust are the most powerful tools for restoring the West’s salmon rivers. The Endangered Species Act...

How much is a rebellion worth? In the case of a prospective second Sagebrush Rebellion, we say it’s not worth very much.
It’s certainly not worth $30,000, the total amount of public funds allocated by Wyoming lawmakers to study an old and beaten idea: The transfer of federal lands to state control...

Since 1872, mining interests have made billions of dollars by removing and selling valuable minerals from our public lands without having to pay a cent to the American taxpayer. This is one of the biggest budget loopholes of the modern economy, and it needs to change -- especially now -- as...

The Bureau of Land Management has a golden opportunity this month to show that it is something more than a conduit for companies that want to drill for oil and gas on lands it administers in western Colorado.
The BLM is contemplating a request from two oil and gas companies, SG Interests and Ursa...

A Canadian mining company has come one step closer to building a mile-wide, half-mile-deep open-pit copper mine on public land 30 miles south of Tucson. On Thursday, Arizona’s Department of Environmental Quality granted Rosemont Copper, a subsidiary of Augusta Resource of Vancouver, a crucial air...

Two new bills introduced in the Montana legislature would usher in a zero-tolerance policy for wild bison, potentially opening the way for a return to the shoot-on-sight practices of years past.
Under a proposed bill in the state Senate, Department of Livestock officials would have the leeway to...

I’ve covered a lot of public meetings as a reporter, but I’ve never been to one quite like the one at Paonia, Colo.’s town hall on Jan. 15. More than 200 residents packed the stuffy council chambers, sitting on the floor and spilling out into the hall. They were there to hear the Bureau of Land...

One of Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden’s first moves as chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee was to seek an investigation into the royalties taxpayers get back for coal mined on public land.
At issue: Are coal companies paying artificially low compensation to taxpayers for the coal...

Colorado has been in the forefront of nearly every regulatory area governing hydraulic fracturing for oil and natural gas, and now it is about to move ahead — or perhaps we should say extend its lead — in terms of groundwater testing, too.
We think that's not only prudent, it's essential. We're...